


Dry It Up

by SouthSideStory



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Inappropriate Use of the Force, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Star Wars: The Last Jedi Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2019-02-18 02:38:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13090659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SouthSideStory/pseuds/SouthSideStory
Summary: Ben was gone, swallowed by the darkness that he refused to give up, and Rey knew she’d never get him back. So she cried, weeping around the hollow in her chest, the place where hope for him used to be. Then she felt it. The quiet that settled around her in the moment before the Force awakened, bridging the distance between planets and stars, closing light years like they were inches.





	Dry It Up

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ReyloTrashCompactor (NextToSomething)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NextToSomething/gifts).



> For ReyloTrashCompactor who requested "Ben catches Rey at a vulnerable moment through the Force bond and comforts her. Bonus points for touch starvation that leads to smut."

.

.

When she was little, worn down from days under the Jakku sun and too weak to care for herself, sometimes Rey would cry. She’d always been an easy crier, a habit it took her years to bend at all, and she’d never been able to break it.

_Dry it up_ , Unkar Plutt used to tell her. _I don’t have any use for brats who won’t work._

So Rey would rub her tears from her windburnt face and keep going.

It was a hard lesson learned, if a useful one, and Rey wished she could call upon it now. But this time she couldn’t stop her tears. They just kept coming, wetting her whole swollen face, sobs wracking her body until her stomach ached.

She’d failed Luke and Ben, the Resistance and the whole galaxy. When the moment came, when Ben held out his hand and said, _Please_ , Rey knew that she’d lost him. It wasn’t love, exactly, that had driven her to the _Supremacy_ with hope for Ben’s soul, but it had been a near thing. Some soft sentiment borne from wary affection and shared loneliness, need for each other founded on common ground.

Now he was gone, swallowed by the darkness that he refused to give up, and Rey knew she’d never get him back. So she cried, weeping around the hollow in her chest, the place where hope for Ben used to be.

Then she felt it. The quiet that settled around her in the moment before the Force awakened, bridging the distance between planets and stars, closing light years like they were inches.

Ben sat beside her on the floor, so real that she could feel the warmth of his body.

“Go away,” Rey said. “I don’t want to see you right now.”

She couldn’t bear for him to witness her weakness, to find out how badly the loss of him ached when she’d never even had him at all.

Ben manhandled her onto his lap, and Rey grunted, beating at his chest. He was here and not here, close and far away, and it wasn’t enough. He should be with her in flesh and not just spirit.

“You could have come with me,” he said. “We could be together right now if you weren’t so stubborn.”

Rey grabbed his tunic to keep from slapping him or sobbing his name. She wished she could stop crying.

“It’s all right. Let it out,” Ben said. “Let it go.”

_You’re still holding on_ , he’d told her before. _Let go._ But he hadn’t meant for her to let go of _him_ , and Rey didn’t know if she could.

She scrubbed at her cheeks with the heel of her hand, sniffing back tears. He was so warm and strong underneath her, keeping her present, grounded, tethered to the earth.

“What do you need?” Ben asked.

_You_ , Rey thought. But she couldn’t have him, not in the ways that mattered.

She tugged at his belt and tunic, tearing open his clothes so that she could touch his bare chest. She’d been wanting to do that ever since she’d seen him half-naked--and maybe before then too, but Rey didn’t like what that said about her. Ben gasped when she ran her hands down to his navel, then back up again. Touching him felt like a miracle, an impossible gift. He wasn’t here, but he was close enough.

Rey wasn’t wearing much, only a loose sleep shirt and simple leggings, easy for Ben strip her out of. He pushed her onto her back, looking over her naked body like he was trying to memorize every detail. The floor was cold beneath her back, Ben warm between her legs when he pressed two fingers to her sex.

“Let me?” he asked. A request, not an order for once.

Rey nodded, and a moment later she had to cover her mouth with her hand to muffle her moans. She wasn’t very wet yet, but he got her there quickly with deep strokes and whispered endearments. So gentle that it was difficult to believe the violence he was capable of.

“Harder,” Rey gasped. “Need more.”

Ben gave her what she asked for, worked her higher with rough thrusts until she was trembling on the edge.

“I love you,” Ben said, and that was it, that was all she needed to fall.

He held her afterward, sweet and silent, and Rey was thankful that he didn’t speak. If Ben asked her to come with him again she might break from the effort of turning him down.

One moment she felt his weight on top of her. The next he was gone, and Rey was crying again, aching from what she’d lost for a second time. She touched her lips, wishing for a kiss they hadn’t thought to share while they had the chance.

.

.


End file.
